Facts About W3C

The World Wide Web Consortium achieves its mission by bringing diverse stake-holders
together, under a clear and effective consensus-based process to develop
high-quality standards based on contributions from the W3C Members, staff, and the community at large.

In process terms: the W3C Process Document, Member Agreement, Patent Policy, and a few others documents establish the roles and responsibilities of the parties involved in the making of W3C standards. Some key components of the organization are:

the Advisory Committee, composed of one representative
from each W3C Member. The Advisory Committee has a number of review roles
in the W3C Process, and they elect the Advisory Board and TAG.

the Advisory Board, an advisory body elected by the Advisory Committee

liaisons with national,
regional and international organizations around the globe. These contacts
help W3C maintain a culture of global participation in the development of the
World Wide Web. W3C coordinates particularly closely with other organizations
that are developing standards for the Web or Internet in order to enable
clear progress.

The Offices Program,
which promotes adoption of W3C recommendations among developers, application builders, and standards setters, and encourage inclusions of stakeholder organizations in the creation of future standards by joining W3C.

Process

Most W3C work revolves around the standardization of Web
technologies. To accomplish this work, W3C follows
processes that
promote the development of high-quality standards based on community
consensus; an
introduction to the W3C Process
gives a sense of how W3C gets work done.
All stakeholders can have a voice in the
development of W3C standards, including Members large and small, as well as
the public. W3C processes promote fairness, responsiveness, and
progress: all facets of the W3C mission.

Patent Policy

In February 2004, W3C adopted a Patent Policy for Working Groups
to enable continued innovation and widespread adoption of Web standards
developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. The W3C Patent Policy
is designed to:

Facilitate the development of W3C Recommendations by W3C Working
Groups;

Promote the widespread implementation of those Recommendations on a Royalty-Free (RF) basis;

Address issues related to patents that arise during and after the
development of a Recommendation.

History

In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the
World Wide Web (see the original proposal).
He coined the term "World Wide Web," wrote the first World Wide Web server,
"httpd," and the first client program (a browser and editor), "WorldWideWeb,"
in October 1990. He wrote the first version of the "HyperText Markup
Language" (HTML), the document formatting language with
the capability for hypertext links that became the primary publishing format
for the Web. His initial specifications for URIs, HTTP, and HTML were refined
and discussed in larger circles as Web technology spread.